What a week . . .

WOW it has been one looooong week. Last week poor little RJ had to have emergency hernia surgery. He's healing up pretty well, but now him and all of us have the flu.

My little brother Nick and his wife Megan and baby boy Seamus all got to come visit as well. So nice to finally meet Mister Seamus. Such a sweet baby. Can't wait to see them again!

Vince's grandparents and parents came to visit on Thursday and stayed till Sunday. We had a nice time visiting with them. Great Grandma and Great Grandpa said they want to come back and stay for much longer. So we really look forward to that. We have really missed them. They said they liked it here. And grandma said it was the first time her phantom leg hasn't hurt in years. So that was nice for her too!

Friday I went to Joann's black Friday sale and got enough flannel for a bunch of things. I should of bought some from diapers too but just didn't. Grrr. Then I went to Healthy Baby and bought Belle and RJ another set of longies. And ended up also buying a used set from Sweet Cheeks, and placing a order for the Osocozy better fits, as I've really been liking those. Sadly later that morning though my mom had a stroke. She had another one today. I've been taking care of her little kids, and dog. Sure hoping she can recover from this. She's been in the hospital ever since. I'm hoping though they will put her in a nursing home so she can get better care then she was at home. I just don't have the physical strength to give her that kind of care, or the time since I have such little kids.

Saturday we took all the kids to Mc Donald's for breakfast and got to eat with the service group who had been working the rurals. Very sweet group. One of the brothers was the husband of the sister that used to come on most of my studies with my teacher Jerri. So it was nice to get to spend some time with them.

Nifty Thrity . . .

Went back to Healthy Baby once Vince got home from work and picked up a premium osocozy to give it a go and see if I like it any at all. I also picked up a shorty for RJ, and a wool skort for Belle. I think I will go to target and look for some socks to make leggies to match it so her legs will be warm, may do the same for RJ. Funny the shorties I picked for RJ match the skort, probably made from the same sweater.

Then I hit the Goodwill, I didn't have much time there cause I got there 5 minutes before closing. But, I still came home with some good deals. RJ needed long sleeve winter shirts, they didn't have many in the time I had to look, but I was still able to get him some from Gymboree and Children's place. And one cord suit jacket for meetings. I happened upon the cutest little red coat for Belle as well. It was clearly from the 50's or 60's but in excellent condition, and has little white puff balls on the ends of the ties. A cute shell button in the back. It's from Millicent's of San Francisco. It is just so stinking cute! Then I hurried to the sweaters, and was able to get two wool sweaters. One in baby blue that will be darling. And another in white, but it is 100 percent lambs wool and is so yummy cushy soft! They had one more that was black with flecks but I didn't get it cause the sleeves would make bell bottoms, but now I am thinking maybe I should of gotten it. I don't know. But, I'm super excited. I'm going to start felting them tonight, and by next week, I'm going to have some of my very own long woolies made, for RJ and Belle. Hopefully it will be as easy as I think it will. I am going to go to Needle Nook tomorrow to pick up some elastic and have Anne do the math for me on how much elastic to use for their waist measurements. I may end up at the sewing machine store and getting a overcasting foot as well.

Right now I'm lanolising the Sugar Bee's I got today for RJ and Belle. They smell heavenly!

Woolie Boolie . . .

Both girls had dental appointments today. I didn't know they started seeing babies at 12 months, of RJ would of went too, but he will go back next month to be seen. Belle's teeth were great, except she's been complaining of her teeth hurting, they said it was molars coming in. Poor baby. I think I need to get her a unpolished amber necklace, the polished one is not working on her like the unpolished works on RJ. RJ hasn't cried or been fussy at all ever with his teeth. But, poor Lela who hasn't complained at all, had a small cavity. She has rough teeth surface to begin with which stain easily but also they warned me would be easy to get cavities as well. Sad....I hope her adult teeth aren't rough like that.


RJ in his new longie wool diaper cover
Well, since I am ever so proudly all caught up on laundry, and we have our own washer/dryer, I decided to go back go cloth diapering. I hated disposables for Belle and RJ, I only cloth diapered Lela. So I am ever so happy to be back to cloth. However, I have discovered wool covers and love them! So I'm going to sell most my diapers I used for Lela and use the money to get my prefold stock for the wool diaper covers I got Belle and RJ. They are so cute, and locally hand made by stay at home mom's. I just love them. I got Belle a pair with a owl, and Friday I'm going to buy her a skort one. Bubba's are pretty cute too though! I also really love the scent of the locally made lanolin....it's yummy. lol Even Vince turns his head when he smells it. ;o) It's a melon scent. They had monkey fart scented lanolin too! lol haha The dad's at the store really thought that was funny! The store also had lullabies by Johnny Cash, both Vince and I said we would HAVE to get that! We both love Johnny!

We seen Wizard of Oz play, for Lela's school field trip and it was very funny and cute! Went over time by 2 hours, but we loved it! And yes yes yes we are finally completely moved out from our apartment and into our new home.

On some sad news, a sister I have known online for many years, who has been fighting a debilitating disease, and has been in a nursing home for many years died the other day. Very sad, but at the same time I am happy she will no longer have to be in the severe pain she was in for so many years, and when she wakes up she will be healthy and pain free! 

Love my cloth!

Since I'm all caught up on laundry and we have our own washer/dryer, I am finally going back to cloth. I cloth diapered Lela the whole time, but after the big move and no washer of our own I slacked. Well now back to it. and I am in search of organic cotton bummi prefolds, or hemp or bamboo prefolds of any brand. Needing a good price though....I'll be selling all my wonderworks/wonderroos, kushies, and probably the wisper wraps and fuzzi bunz too. I've went with woolies and love them...so getting rid of the rest of my stash. I'd look at used woolies as well...medium sized, longies, shorties or skorts.

Off to see the Wizard . . .

We have almost every thing completely out of our apartment. I'm thinking by the end of next weekend we will be DONE! I can't wait. We don't get very much time to move and such cause of Vince's very long work hours, usually from 4 am till 8 pm, only one or two nights a week does he get off work by 6 or 7 pm, instead of 8. And when he has to be there by 4 am, not much we can do before work. When he gets of work, it's usually just eating dinner, saying a few things to the kids and then it's time for bed. So it's taken us a while to get every thing out, but I am so happy it will be over next weekend!

Amazingly I was able to get the house so clean, I was able to reorganize the garage. I can't believe it. I'm usually so behind the garage would be the last thing on my mind. But, I was able to completely and utterly organize the garage. And now the kids can play in there when it's too cold outside. They have a play kitchen in there, and some ride on toys. They love playing out there.

I've been working on recipes again, and I came up with some pretty good ones I think. The kids liked my pumpkin mac and cheese the best! I liked it pretty well too.

We have been having a ball, quite literally with Lela's gym class that is part of the Calvert curriculum.  We've been playing a lot of four square. However, I ended up buying the two littles their own ball so that they won't keep getting hit in the face, trying to play with Lela and I. They like just chasing the ball any how. And our nature walk was really lovely as well. Lela really likes it. And it for sure is something I needed to start doing! Yesterday was so nice and warm we spent nearly all afternoon out there, from the time Lela was done with school, till Vince got home. Today though it suddenly turned frigid out there. Glad we had one good day out in the sun before the cold came in though!

I've always wanted to decorate our door, but in NYC anything I put on our door was stolen....I think the janitors may of taken them and threw them in the trash, but I just don't know. I know they wouldn't even last a week on the door though. Which is kind of sad. Yesterday at Walmart's clearance section they had all their fall decor on sale to bring in the winter stuff. So I got a really cute autumn sign for the door. I can finally decorate again! Little by little I'm getting the house just how I would like it. Finally, only took a little over a decade. haha I'm hoping they will hurry up and put the fall sugar on sale so I can use those colors to decorate sugar cookies we are going to be making soon. All they had though was halloween colors on sale and I really didn't want them at all. I would like the rich orange though and burnt red like colors they have out for fall though. I bought a leaf cookie cutter and they will be really really cute, with those colors of sugar on top.

Today we are going to see the Wizard of Oz for Lela's class field trip. When I signed up they said they were full, but then I got a email two days ago that they had tickets for us! So that should be fun. The only thing is only Lela can go, no children under 3. I had already signed up for 5 tickets though, we are going to take Hunter and Casey to see it as well. It's in a local high school here, a brand new one, so that should be nice to see how they did this brand new school. I only went to really really old schools when I was growing up, very outdated ones, the first ones built in our town in fact. haha My grandparents had went there! haha Now every thing is new and modern with heat and AC! lol My younger siblings look at me like I'm from the stone age, when I tell them that we didn't have AC in school in fact we didn't even have fans, unless a teacher brought in their own! And our heat was those old oil things that clunked really loudly all day long. Funny how much things have changed very fast around here it seems. Anyway, it's been really nice all the little field trips that the school has planned. I'm so glad that Maize is hosting this for our state. I just love it. I need to check in with the co-op though and see if there's any more planned soon with them as well. After the play we are going to pack more stuff. Then my brother will bring his daughter Lily over and she is spending the night. Lela and Belle will be very very happy about that!

The Simple Woman's Daybook . . .

Outside my window. . . little girls playing red light, green light.

I am hearing...some one eating oreos.

I am thinking. . .Things are going awesome.

I am thankful for. . .having a working husband.

I am remembering. . .nice people from the library.

I am hoping. . .to lose some weight.

I am creating. . .hopefully kind children.

On my mind. . .dentists.

Noticing that. . .It's nice to live in a house.

From the kitchen. . .pumpkin mac and cheese, collard greens, spaghetti squash, pumpkin cheesecake.

One of my favorite things. . .festivals.

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .Getting ahead with Lela's school, and moving more things from my dad's house.

What I am reading. . .email.

Picture for thought I am sharing. . .

RJ at the Haysville Fall Festival 2012

Noah had donuts?

I go to the dental surgeon today. I'm a bit scared, but also relieved to finally start getting some things fixed. The girls get to see my childhood dentist now that we live in Kansas and he's still so much fun and so nice. So glad they get to see him. As I hated the one in NYC, she would literally be 3 hours late even getting to the office, we waited one time for 4 hours out in a dirty hallway for her to even come to the office. A 9 am appointment and she didn't come till around 1 pm! And then when we finally seen her her office was filthy and she would not listen to me at all. Kept saying Lela ate too much candy and drink too much juice. When at the time she was exclusively breastfed and didn't have either one at all! And I repeatedly said she didn't drink juice or eat candy at all! And she would just repeat her self that she ate and drink too much of it! UHG! Didn't like her one bit. Brought her up to see Dr. Moore and right away he found the problem with Lela's teeth was a fall she had, had made her root bleed and stain her tooth. Grrr.

Any way...it's been a good weekend, I finally bought myself some chewbeads, in orange, which really surprised me were the color that looked best on me!  I never would of guessed it. Belle and RJ love them. I got some awesome sales at Catherine's last week too. A beautiful new sweater only 4 dollars, and new nightgowns only 90 cents. They were so cheap I bought all the kids their own leather purses there too, they were small ones, and I bought myself one too, cause it was really cute, and only 90 cents. So we will all match. I'm not big into a lot of purses. But, it will go with some of my other color wardrobe. I have a red leather one that I've been using for years now, and so now I will have a yellow one for when red won't go.

I am ALL caught up on laundry completely still. So I went to Sweet Cheeks and bought a bunch of used diapers. With in two weeks we will be going back to exclusively cloth diapering. And I am so excited about that. I feel bad I had Belle in disposables for so long. But, with out a washer and three kids, it just got to be too much. I'm glad I was able to exclusively cloth diaper Lela, and wish I could of Belle too. But, at least she will be getting some cloth training pants next week. Cause she is in the middle of potting training. Every one of them is getting so big though. Lela just graduated to a booster car seat. It seems like I was just bringing her home from the hospital days ago!

Saturday we finally made it to Noah's donuts. They are a Daylight donut shop just down the street from my house. I must say the donuts are good but I'm still in love with the Winchell's by my mothers house. Since the new ownership of the old Mexican man, the donuts are awesome there! But, the man at Noah's was extra super nice, in a Cheech and Chong type way though. lol We have never made it there cause they are only open 4 am to 11 am. So this was our first time. He gave us a bottle of OJ, and 16 donuts for 5 bucks! Said he was tired and ready to go home. The kids loved them and they weren't bad, they were fresh. I'm just in love with the texture of the Winchell's donuts since the new guy good over. Oh well, we will probably still visit Noah's with the kids cause they really liked the donuts there, and it's literally with in walking distance.

This week I made us my pumpkin bread pudding that I made up the recipe to myself and the kids loved it. So for sure going to have to make that more often. Lela said she wants to take it with us to the pumpkin patch next time we go. This week I'm going to work on tweaking a healthy pumpkin cheesecake to mimic the insanely delicious one at Olive Garden. And also working on a zucchini quiche like the one this lady in Tops used to make in Long Island, I loved that quiche, but she would never give me the recipe. haha Any way hoping to get them all yummy soon, and tweaked just right.

The Simple Woman's Daybook. . .

Outside my window. . .crisp fall air.

I am hearing...poor RJ throwing a fit

I am thinking. . .we will have a long day on Thursday.

I am thankful for. . .for such a good school program.

I am remembering. . .our beautiful time at the pumpkin patch last week..

I am hoping. . .to get to feeling better soon.

I am creating. . .hopefully some happy kiddos.

On my mind. . .dental work.

Noticing that. . .We have a lot of stuff from the school district.

From the kitchen. . .chicken and cous cous.

One of my favorite things. . .small town festivals, loved our fall festival!

A few plans for the rest of the week. . .Going to the library, a play group, hmmm not sure what else.

What I am reading. . .some books I bought at the fall festival.

Picture for thought I am sharing. . .

newly weds...fun day at my favorite park, when we were only married for a year.

We Love Calvert. . .

Calvert just keeps getting better and better. Received another huge box from them today, with lots of fun learning aids. Lela was so excited. Thankfully I bought yet another shelving unit last week other wise we wouldn't have any where to put every thing. Funny thing is I went to Sam's to buy another one like we already bought and they were out of stock and not getting any more. I went from store to store to store, and finally found some like them at Menard's. However it was only the display that they had left. I kept asking the price and they couldn't find the price. Finally they said 50 dollars cause they couldn't find a price. I bargained them down to 44, cause I said that I had bought some like them except for they were brown instead of black and I only paid 37 at Sam's. Any way, they went down to 44. I got them home, and oops, they are like three times the size I got at Sam's. So huge score for me! And boy do I need the extra storage space as well with all these books and aids! I also bought some things from Highlights, (the children's magazine), just love their stuff. Funny thing about that, is I bought only 14 dollars worth of merchandise, and they sent me 20 dollars worth of "free" gifts! haha I am really excited to use the things I bought. I bought a book on creating "learning centers", a book on teaching Cursive Writing just in case Calvert decides not to since it seems most schools are no longer teaching it. And a package of these little writing aids that helps kids read, and write. It keeps them on the line they are reading when they use it to read. And helps them put the right size space between words when they are writing. I am hoping it will help Lela cause she has been working on the spacing. Then they sent me thousands, literally thousands!, of stickers for free. It was funny cause the UPS guy had to bring 4 packages today. When Vince got home he said so did UPS have 1 package or 2. I said four! haha He was like four? I do though wish the school would give us a heads up when they are sending big packages. I was totally not expecting it at all.

Any way, been having lots of fun with Calvert. And going to the MVPS group pumpkin patch field trip. Since last time we were there the food lady was really slow and the concession stand food wasn't even warm (and it should of been!) we are going to take our own food this time. I think I'm going to make beef noodle soup, cause it's one of Lela's favorites. And bring corn bread crackers, all the kids love those. Apple cider, and maybe apple fritters, will have to see. Julie is taking us. And I will be meeting up with my step brother Mark, his wife Cheyenne, and their daughter Lily.

Went to my LLL meeting tonight. Haven't been in a month and it seemed like forever. So glad I got to go back. One of the leaders daughter's just had her first baby. Only 13 days ago. She is a really sweet leader so we are wishing her daughter the best. This same daughter was there for RJ's birth and was really nice and helpful with RJ as well.

And now last but certainly not least, I am finally completely and utterly caught up on laundry, for the first time in our marriage. I want to shout from the rooftops how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE having my own washing machine! It makes keeping up with the laundry so much easier! I love it!